Ukranian medalist pleas for peace

SOCHI, Russia (AP) - The first Ukrainian medalist of the Sochi Paralympics dedicated her achievement to "an independent Ukraine," appealing for peace as Russia intensifies its control of Crimea.

Olena Iurkovska claimed bronze in the first biathlon event on the first day of competition on Saturday - the women's 6 kilometer sitting competition.

After finishing behind Svetlana Konovalova of Russia, Iurkovska said: "I devote my first medal in Sochi to an independent Ukraine. Every time I race, it will be for Ukrainian independence and peace in my country."

How incompetent can AOL be... hiring illiterate interns and letting them write headlines???? The verb is "pleads," not pleas, as any high school student should know before getting to college, let alone writing for a large audience....Ignorant.

Why are we seeing 4 year old photo of this athlete? Are there no photographers and media at the Sochi ParaOlympics? Crap I can't even find a TV schedule ... NBC did a pathetic job at the other Olympics why should I expect them to do a decent job at the Para Olympics?